KDE does not load after start and the pc just shows a black screen
I get an an error when running startx which tells me to look into the Xorg logs:
...
[ 544.519] (II) Initializing extension DRI2
[ 544.519] (EE) modeset(G0): Failed to create pixmap
[ 544.519] (EE)
Fatal server error:
[ 544.519] (EE) failed to create screen resources(EE)
[ 544.519] (EE)
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
at http://wiki.x.org
for help.
[ 544.519] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/home/admin/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[ 544.519] (EE)
[ 544.520] (II) AIGLX: Suspending AIGLX clients for VT switch
[ 544.543] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
full log
When uninstalling the nvidia (hybrid intel/nvidia) drivers, it works again.
As soon as I reinstall them it does not work again.
I must have broken a config somewhere but I don’t know where.
Thanks in advance for the help
Looks to me like an hardware or driver issue. It tries to allocated space on the reserved memory of the Intel GPU, so a pixmap, but failed. It can be a random hardware issue: RAM or GPU, or it is some conflict with the nvidia driver. However, I have no solution for you, just an explanation.
I think I can rule out a hardware issue because
a) it worked perfectly fine before a reboot
b) it works flawlessly in windows (both igpu and dgpu)
I was messing around with some software to manage the asus stuff (I am on a laptop) that may have done something as I saw an something about optimus in the settings. I have uninstalled that software now but it still does not work.
I just installed yesterday and did not create a backup. Think i’ll just reinstall and create a backup when I see it working.
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With Timeshift you can take a snapshot any time you want to change something.
If things don’t go well, you can roll back in a very short time. No damage was done at all.
I suggest reading about btrfs, snapshots, snapper, timeshift.
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I reinstalled and after installing software to try to manage the asus power modes, it broke again and I’m getting the same errors.
This time I used btrfs and have created a snapshot of before it broke. I’d like to see what was changed between the current system and the snapshot to find out what broke. Is that possible and if so how could I do that.
Googling around I found ˋbtrfs sendˋ can compare snapshots but it tells me that the subvolume is not read only. I know nothing about btrfs so I’d need some help.
You may need to take a snapshot “now” to compare with.
The writable (and changing) subvolume is no good target to compare with 
- Do you use snapper ? (makes readonly snapshots)
- Or timeshift ? (makes writable snapshots)
- Or do you take snapshots by btrfs directly ? (makes readonly snapshots)
I had used this, but i had to look first.
It is included in snapper
info snapper
...
SchnappschĂĽsse vergleichen:
snapper status <Nummer1>..<Nummer2>
...
SchnappschĂĽsse vergleichen:
snapper diff <Nummer1>..<Nummer2> [Dateien]
...
Snapper documentation
status [options] number1..number2
Compare the snapshots number1 and number2. This will show a list of files and directories that have been created, modified or deleted in the time between the two snapshots have been made.
-o, --output file
Write output to file file.
The output consists of a string encoding the status followed by the filename. The characters of the status string are:
A "+" means the file was created, a "-" means the file was deleted. A "c" means the content of the file has changed and a "t" means the type of the file has changed (e.g. from regular file to directory).
A "p" means the permissions are have changed.
An "u" means the user ownership has changed.
A "g" means the group ownership has changed.
A "x" means the extended attribute information has changed.
An "a" means the ACL information has changed.
If there is no change a "." is outputted.
diff [options] number1..number2 [files]
Compare the snapshots number1 and number2. This will show a diff of the content of files and directories that have been created, modified or deleted in the time between the two snapshots have been made.
-i, --input file
Read files to diff from file file.
--diff-cmd command
Command used for comparing files. The default is /usr/bin/diff --new-file --unified. The two files to compare are passed as parameters to the command.
-x, --extensions options
Extra options passed to the diff command.
You can find good Information about Btrfs in the wiki
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I found it using btrfs assistant in a live environment. I had installed supergfx as a dependency for for a software to control the asus stuff.
This software created the file /etc/modprobe.d/supergfxd.conf
Deleting this file and rebooting makes kde work again. This file contained
Ë‹Ë‹Ë‹
blacklist nouveau
alias nouveau off
options nvidia-drm modeset=1
Ë‹Ë‹Ë‹
I don’t know what it was supposed to do but it prevented KDE from loading.
I could have avoided the second install if I had found this earlier…
Thanks a lot for helping me